Grave Digger Announces Track Listing

German power metallers GRAVE DIGGER will release their new album, "Clash Of The Gods", on August 31 in Europe and September 4 in North America viaNapalm Records. A six-song mini-CD, "Home At Last", will precede the full-length effort on July 27 in Europe and August 7 in North America.

GRAVE DIGGER's new CD was recorded at Principal Studios in Münster, Germany. The band laid down at least 10 new original compositions as well as "a cover version of a male, 'not-heavy-metal' artist," which the group said "won't be another German 'Schlager' song... it will be 150 percent pureGRAVE DIGGER metal. Again we transferred the spirit of the '80s into the sound of 2012."

"Clash Of The Gods" track listing:

01. Charon
02. God Of Terror
03. Hell Dog
04. Medusa
05. Clash Of The Gods
06. Death Angel & The Grave Digger
07. Walls Of Sorrow
08. Call Of The Sirens
09. Warriors Revenge
10. With The Wind
11. Home At Last

Bonus tracks on digibook version:

12. Saints Of The Broken Souls
13. Zurück Nach Haus ("Home At Last" German version)

"Home At Last" track listing:

01. Home At Last
02. Rage Of The Savage Beast (non-album track)
03. Metal Will Never Die (non-album track)
04. Ballad Of A Hangman (live in Wacken 2010)
05. Excalibur (live in Wacken 2010)
06. Heavy Metal Breakdown (live in Wacken 2010)

GRAVE DIGGER last fall extended its contract with Napalm Records. The band said in a statement, "Napalm is a small and hard-working team that is as effective and productive as a company of 70 people. Always reachable and competent, they work with their artists individually. These are the strengths of Napalm, and that is why we have signed a deal for three more records under the Napalm banner."

"The Clans Are Still Marching", the latest DVD from GRAVE DIGGER, entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 56 (German chart rules allow music DVDs to enter album charts).

GRAVE DIGGER's latest album, "The Clans Will Rise Again", was released in Europe on October 1, 2010 via Napalm Records. The CD was recorded between mid-May 2010 and mid-July 2010 at the Meadow Studios, which is owned by GRAVE DIGGER's new guitarist Axel Ritt, and Principal Studios, where all of GRAVE DIGGER albums since 1995's "Heart Of Darkness" have been tracked. It was produced by Chris Boltendahl and mixed by Jörg Umbreit.

Metallica Talks The Black Album

Chris Steffen of The Village Voice recently conducted an interview withMETALLICA guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and guitarist Kirk Hammettabout the band's breakthrough album from 21 years ago, 1991's self-titled fifth LP, commonly known as "the black album." A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Village Voice: "Nothing Else Matters" was a major departure for the band. It pissed off some fans expecting thrash metal, but it's still played at almost every show.

James Hetfield: It's absolutely crazy, that was the song that I thought was least METALLICA, least likely to ever played by us, the last song anyone would really want to hear. It was a song for myself in my room on tour when I was bumming out about being away from home. It's quite amazing, it's a true testament to honesty and exposing yourself, putting your real self out there, and taking the risk, taking a gamble that someone's either going to step on your heart with spikes on or they're going to put their heart right next to it, and you never know until you try. That solidified, I think, that we were doing the right thing, writing form the heart about what we felt, and you can't go wrong that way. It has become an unbelievable song live, and from the New York Hells Angels putting it in their movie to sports people to people getting married to it, all kinds of stuff, people relate to it. I'm grateful that the guys forced me to take it out of my tape player and make it Metallica.

The Village Voice: What do you find so compelling about the themes in"The Unforgiven" that you decided to revisit the song for two sequels?

James Hetfield: Maybe it's not done, maybe I didn't feel forgiven or wasn't able to forgive. It's one of those songs to me that is pretty personal, obviously revolving around forgiveness of the world and self and whatever else you have some resentment against, working through that. The melody itself never went away in my head, it's potent for me, and lyrically, stuff kept coming along with it, and probably the fact that you're not supposed to do a trilogy or something, or keep writing the same thing onto the next album. I think after "The Unforgiven III", we're kind of done with it. I think I'm able to forgive, forgive myself and move on.

The Village Voice: Do you ever look at a setlist before a show, see "Enter Sandman", and say, "Seriously, guys, not tonight."

Kirk Hammett: There's a certain amount of songs we know we have to play, because the audience expects us to play them, and songs we throw in because we feel like playing or get requests. The great thing about our music is most of it is really, really fun to play, and very dynamic, dynamic enough so that if we wanted to change part of a song or add a part, take out a part, it can pretty much survive that. When songs start to become a little tedious, what we'll do is just change them, take parts out, add parts, or make it more dynamic, and that's our way around getting around the whole boredom factor, which I think is a good approach, an honorable approach. There were times when the mention of "Seek And Destroy"would make me gag, but we started playing it in a heavier key, and now it sounds like a brand new song to me. We made the change six or seven years ago, and I love it all over again. 

Read the entire interview from The Village Voice.

Lars Ulrich Talks Orion Fest

Scott Cronick of Atlantic City Insiders recently conducted an interview withMETALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Atlantic City Insiders: Why did you pick Atlantic City as a site for your first music festival?

Lars: We always knew we wanted to be in that zip code — right around your neighborhood — between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and D.C. We wanted to do it in a place where it would be convenient for people to come from the West Coast or Europe in terms of airport access. Music history is loaded with horror stories about music festivals and events taking place on somebody's farm 90 minutes from a freeway and you have to fight cattle on a one-way road. So we didn't want that. When. A.C. came up, we jumped on it because we wanted the experience to be pleasant. There's access. There's hotel rooms. It's a logical place to do it.

Atlantic City Insiders: METALLICA has been around for more than 30 years. Why now?

Lars: We've wanted to do it for years. Call us ignorant or crazy or dreamers or whatever but it's an idea we've been floating around for about four years. Since we did Bonnaroo in 2008, we felt like we've been doing these things in Europe and all over with diverse lineups for 25 years … and we felt we could do something like that here by ourselves and that we could make it fun. So when we decided to do it, we looked for people we can trust and work with to protect our vision and keep it pure and about the music and experience and the musician's lifestyle. It's not about commerce and $9 water bottles and all that other bullshit.

Atlantic City Insiders: What will be the best part of this whole weekend for you?

Lars: Since we are the hosts of this thing, we are all hanging around. It's not like we are rolling in a stretch limo 20 minutes before we go on. We are going to be there and partake and hang and listen to music and take in the whole thing. I look forward to that side of it. We are so used to going from one place to another to show up and play and leave. I look to loitering. There are going to be a f-k load of cool people in A.C. that weekend. That's the cool part.

Read the entire interview from Atlantic City Insiders.

Gojira New Album Track by Track

In a recent interview with Metalshrine, Joseph Duplantier stated about the new album title, "We couldn't call it 'The Wild Child', because it's hard to translate 'L'Enfant Sauvage'. It's not really the wild child as understood in English, because a wild child for me, has an aspect like someone out of control somehow. 'L'Enfant Sauvage' in French… 'Sauvage' is something that is not educated or something that is like free and completely free in nature. A wild flower that goes wherever she wants and becomes something beautiful. The idea with 'L'Enfant Sauvage' is like with a human that would grow up in nature, raised by wolves, for example, without the influence from others and the influence from institutions or society in general. Without a social security number. [laughs] Not even a name. This is what you are and I am on the inside, right? How much the education and the culture, emotions and the guilt are interacting with us and it changes us and how far are we from this pure child inside? That's the question we had on this album."


A special collector's package of "L'Enfant Sauvage" will feature two bonus tracks and a double-colored vinyl version of the record, along with an exclusive t-shirt.


"L'Enfant Sauvage" track listing:


01. Explosia
02. L'Enfant Sauvage
03. The Axe
04. Liquid Fire
05. The Wild Healer
06. Planned Obsolescence
07. Mouth Of Kala
08. The Gift Of Guilt
09. Pain Is A Master
10. Born In Winter
11. The Fall


GOJIRA will release a new DVD/Blu-ray, "The Flesh Alive", in the U.S. on July 31 via Mascot. The set will be made available in the following formats:


* 2-DVD+CD
* Blu-ray+CD with free poster


The three-disc "The Flesh Alive" chronicles the making of GOJIRA's 2008 album, "The Way Of All Flesh", and the touring activity that followed the CD's release.


"L'Enfant Sauvage" track by track - part 1:

Scum of the Earth New Album

SCUM OF THE EARTH — the band led by former ROB ZOMBIE guitaristRiggs — will release its third album, "The Devil Made Me Do It", on August 28 via Goomba Music, Inc. (with distribution through eOne in North America). Produced by Riggs and Volkstoker, it was recorded atScum HQ in Branson, Missouri and is the follow-up to 2007's "Sleaze Freak" (Eclipse Records). The first single, "The Devil Made Me Do It III", was released last month and was heard during the recent New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup playoff games. The song was recorded at theMansion Studio in Columbia, Missouri by Riggs and Brandon Mashburn(TRUST COMPANY, THE DREAMING).

Commented Riggs, "Being that this is 2012 and the end of the world and all, I thought the SCUM OF THE EARTH sound has ran its course, so I reinvented the sound with the help of a producer/programmer by the nameVolkstroker. We worked on the songs for eight months and this was the end result. Check it out before you turn into a zombie." 

"The Devil Made Me Do It" track listing:

01. Born Again Masochist
02. Via Dela Rosa
03. Zombies -vs- Skeletons
04. The Devil Made Me Do It III
05. Zombie Apocalypse
06. Sounds of the Dead
07. Pray
08. (Mindless) Dead Things
09. Ghost
10. Funeral March

SCUM OF THE EARTH's latest CD, "Sleaze Freak", was released on October 23, 2007. The explicit (PA) version of the album was made available at most retailers containing an added DVD video. The DVD consists of footage filmed while recording and mixing the album documenting the recording and mixing process and many hijinks of the band around town, in the studio, and on the road. 

SCUM OF THE EARTH's first studio album of all-new material since the critically-acclaimed debut "Blah…Blah…Blah…Love Songs For The New Millennium" (2004), "Sleaze Freak" contained 13 brand new songs described by Riggs as "heavy-as-hell grinding, stripper-rock." "It's a much more intense collection of material than 'Blah…Blah…Blah…'" saidRiggs. "We did everything we wanted to do this time around, which allowed us to really embody the whole red-light-district sleazy vibe into the material."